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This year UEA and uea(su) have partnered up to look at the relationship that students have to alcohol at UEA and work to reduce the negative impacts alcohol can have on some student lives.

Whilst we’ve working to introduce a bunch of new initiatives there is also some more established things that we do that I wanted to share with you via my blog today.

The first is our Red Card system in all SU venues. We love providing a great range of venues for our students to meet, make friends and have a great time and we believe that we have a role to play in ensure that everyone is able to have a positive experience.

One of the ways we make sure behaviour that goes against what we would expect is addressed is through our Red Card system which tackles things like being drunk on arrival to our venues, being disrespectful, being aggressive or littering. If you get issued a Red Card you’re not just excluded from the venue on the night you also have to come and talk about your behaviour with a Union member of staff where we look at positive next steps we can take with students.

We want to make sure that Red Cards are the start of a positive intervention to support our students to learn and ultimately succeed at UEA so all of those who get given a Red Card must come in to see someone to talk about what happens next.

Societea is one of our amazing student groups and they bring together a whole bunch of people from across UEA. As you will know from an early blog I wrote about 1/3 of UEA students drink alcohol less than once a week and Kerry, the President of Societea thought there was a gap in the market!

The group was set up to provide a safe for those who are tee-total to socialise over their mutual love of tea! Socials are held regularly where the group watch films, go to cafes and play board games – just generally spend time with each other without alcohol needing to be present. The group love welcoming new people to make friends in a relaxed social setting.

In the year ahead the group are keen to attract more people to get involved. It’s not a requirement that you don’t drink at all, you just need to want to spend time in a space without alcohol. Get in touch with them if you want to be a member next year.

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UEA Students' Union
Union House
University of East Anglia
Norwich
NR4 7TJ